


grief is a freight train (what's a little pain?)

by lunasasylum



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Comfort/Angst, Crying, Cuddling & Snuggling, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Literal Sleeping Together, Long-Term Relationship(s), Minor Character Death, Protective Jughead Jones, Sad Veronica Lodge, Sad with a Happy Ending, Sobbing, Soft Veronica Lodge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-07
Updated: 2018-11-07
Packaged: 2019-08-16 22:32:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16504016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunasasylum/pseuds/lunasasylum
Summary: "He always told me to be strong," Veronica chokes as she continues speaking."But I-I can't do this, I can't handle this alone, I'm not,"Coughing and crying, she shakes her head. "I'm not strong enough, I can't do it."// or Jughead sees Veronica cry for the first time.





	grief is a freight train (what's a little pain?)

**Author's Note:**

> I live in FL and this election has me so fucked. I'm tired and stressed, so here you go...

The first time Jughead sees Veronica cry, they've been dating for almost 9 months.

It's near the end of their junior year. Her favorite uncle is killed in an obvious Mafia hit. She doesn't cry when she tells him. She simply asks him to come with her to New York to bury her uncle. Of course, he agrees, despite the obvious hesitance of her dad. But, Veronica has already learned to navigate her father, and it only takes one hard glare when she tells him to make him quiet.

The funeral service is long. It's cold in New York, even though it's almost March. But, Veronica doesn't even shiver when they step out of the hotel into a car. Her dress is long, but thin. She rejects Jughead's offer of his coat, but accepts his hand in hers.

When Veronica gets up she smoothly gives a succinct and honest eulogy. She doesn't cry, not one tear, she doesn't choke up for even a second. There's no need for tissues or even a paper, she has it memorized. Still, when she's finished there are even more people crying. 

Jughead watches as even her parents quickly swipe away some tears. But, not Veronica. Instead, she takes his hand again and watches as her mother gets up and delivers a beautiful speech, followed by their priest yelling about life ending too soon.

Her uncle was only 35, young, with so much life ahead of him. But, everyone knew the price of being in the Lodge crime family. When Veronica was younger, he was the person she could always talk to. She didn't have any brothers or sisters, and her friends were a revolving door of people based on teenage hormones.

Her uncle was always around when she needed him. Veronica talked to him about everything she was feeling when from the time she could speak.

She went over to his apartment when she was 12 and had her first crush on a girl. Then, she sprinted over to his apartment when she had her first kiss with a girl.

He was the one who taught her how to drive and shoot a gun. He took her out to dinner when her dad went to jail, and told her to be strong.

When she moved to Riverdale, she phoned him her first night, biting her lip to keep from crying about how much she missed him already.

Since then, she's called him every day. She told him about her feelings for Jughead, how she was worried because he was in a gang and she was already wrapped up in the family business.

She confessed that she was scared that she might be falling in love with him, how she wasn't sure, and he told her that she'd know when she knew. At first, she didn't understand what he meant, but slowly she started to realize that he was right.

When she got the call that he had been shot in his car, coming home from a restaurant. Both he and his driver had been killed. She didn't cry when the news broke, she simply thanked her aunt for telling her and hung up. She told Jughead that night, a strange flatness to her voice that had him on edge. 

Veronica didn't want to be held, she didn't want to break, she wasn't going to fall apart. She only told him to be prepared to meet her family at the funeral in New York. Even in the dark of the night she didn't shudder, she didn't lose any sleep, she never broke into pieces.

Even as they lowered the casket in the ground, which is when Jughead saw her mother crumple on the other side of her, Veronica didn't cry. She only held up her mother while her father held her other side. They ushered her into the limo where Veronica sat next to him, face straight and impassive as it had been since she heard.

On the plane back home, she falls asleep on him, soundly and easily.

But, one day, almost two months later, he's at the Whyte Wyrm when his phone rings.

"Can you come home?" Her voice is quiet, not demanding or bossy. She's not stating something in the form of a question, she's asking him to do something. So, he immediately rides home and slides through the front door. Laying his jacket on the couch, he follows the sound of whimpering to find his girlfriend.

He finds Veronica sitting on his bed, holding a navy blue ring. "It was delivered when I got home. He sent it here because he knew I'd be here." Jughead expects her to continue explaining, instead she falls silent, staring down at the ring. When she looks back up at him her eyes are red and cheeks are splotchy. Jughead nearly trips on his way over to her from the door, pulling her into his arms. 

She folds easily, crying loudly into his shirt. She fists her hands into the hem of his shirt, and shudders as she cries harder. Veronica is a full body crier, she shakes and quivers as the tears fall. She hiccups and coughs, her shoulders shake, her

Jughead watches as his recently stoic girlfriend breaks into little-girl sized pieces. Her cries turn into smaller screams as she slumps and loses her hold on him. She coughs and sobs, wetting his shirt. "He always told me to be strong," Veronica chokes as she continues speaking. "But I-I can't do this, I can't handle this alone, I'm not," Coughing and crying, she shakes her head. "I'm not strong enough, I can't do it."

Hearing her speak so broken, so torn apart makes Jughead choke up as well. "I've got you, babe. Okay, you don't have to be strong right now, I've got you."

It takes a while for the violent part of her crying to taper off into silent huff against him.

In the end she's weak and tired, so Jughead hoists her up and takes her to the shower. Veronica rests a good portion of her body against him in the small space. It's a bit cramped but he washes her frizzing hair and the rest of her body and pulls her out the shower. She slips into one of his shirts and curls up next to him in bed.

"He was my best friend and I lost him," She whispers. Her voice is wrecked and almost totally shot. But, he listens as she speaks.

Veronica pauses and pulls back to squint up at him in the dim light of the room. "I could, uh, I could hear my family whispering about how I didn't care about my uncle. How I didn't love him y'know? But, I did. I never said it, but I did. I swear, I did."

Jughead kisses the top of her and allows her to roll half on top of him. "He knew."

_I promise, I know too._


End file.
